Orbital Marine Power has been awarded an Option Agreement from Crown Estate Scotland for a new tidal energy project in the Westray Firth.
The Orkney-headquartered company also confirmed it has a grid connection in place to service the project, which is located adjacent to the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) facility, where Orbital has already deployed the 2MW O2 - the world’s most powerful tidal turbine - under commercial operation.
Renewable projects in Orkney were recently given a boost by Ofgem announcing it is minded to approve a new 220MW transmission connection, to be built from the Scottish mainland to service renewable power exports from the islands.
Following the award of Contracts for Difference in last year’s AR4 process, Orbital is already targeting the installation of three more of its tidal turbines at the EMEC site.
In keeping with the company’s strategy of carrying out major aspects of its manufacturing within the UK, the construction of the Westray project would be expected to result in over £120m of domestic supply chain spend, creating hundreds of jobs across construction and around a dozen new permanent jobs locally to provide operations and maintenance services.
The Option Agreement is for 30MW, which would equate to approximately 12 Orbital devices installed across the site.
The Orbital team is engaged with stakeholders and is progressing environmental studies, with a view to reaching consent application as soon as possible.
Chief executive Andrew Scott said: “As the UK looks to accelerate the decarbonisation of its energy system, we firmly believe tidal projects can bring unique benefits while harnessing a perfectly predictable and secure source of renewable energy.”
Alistair Carmichael, MP for Orkney and Shetland, said: “Progress with Orbital’s Westray project is a vote of confidence in the potential here in the isles and demonstrates exactly why expanding grid capacity for Orkney has been so important.
“This good news is also evidence of the need for a more robust strategy from the government on tidal stream deployment, including continued and expanded backing in the next round of Contracts for Difference funding.”
Sian Wilson, head of offshore development at Crown Estate Scotland, said: “The Orbital team has successfully secured development rights to progress the tidal energy site located in the Westray Firth which offers a great opportunity to tap into the vast tidal energy resource within Orkney waters.
“The predictable nature of tidal energy means such projects will perform a crucial role as we transition to a decarbonised energy system and build Scotland’s blue economy.”
Amy Keast, senior policy manager at Scottish Renewables, added: “Orbital Marine Power’s Westray project is yet another example of how much potential there is in Scotland for the development of tidal energy technology.
“A recent decision to connect Orkney to the mainland with a new power cable was instrumental in making sure this pioneering project could proceed, and shows that the renewable energy industry in Scotland can deliver so much when developers have certainty that they will be able to connect their project to the electricity network.”
The culmination of more than 15 years of refinement has resulted in tidal stream turbine, the O2, which has been exporting low carbon electricity to the UK grid since July 2021 - the first vessel to be launched from a Dundee yard in 40 years.
Orbital’s floating technology captures the strongest tidal and river currents, guaranteeing higher yield. These exist close to the surface, rather than at the seabed.
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